PepsiCo's president and chief financial officer is Indra K. Nooyi. The multinational powerhouse that Nooyi leads is best known for its Pepsi soft drinks, but it is also one of the world's largest snack-food businesses. It also manufactures and sells various other items, such as Doritos chips, Tropicana juice, and Quaker Oats cereals. Nooyi is a top female executive in the United States, and she is thought to be the highest-ranking woman of Indian descent in business.
Indra Nooyi Biography - EARLY LIFEIndra Krishnamurthy was born to a conservative middle-class family in Madras (now Chennai), Tamil Nadu, India, on October 28, 1955. Her father worked for a bank.
Holy Angels Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School was where she received her education. She earned her bachelor's degree in physics, chemistry, and mathematics from Madras Christian College in 1974.
She had a rebellious streak as a child and was described as "wild." She was a member of an all-girls cricket team and played guitar in a band—activities that girls in her social strata seldom did.
She was a brilliant student who was accepted into one of India's top universities, the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, where she received a Post Graduate Diploma in Management (MBA) in 1976.
Indra Nooyi Biography - STRUGGLED TO MAKE ENDS MEETNooyi soon adjusted to her new life, but for the next two years, she struggled to make ends meet. Despite receiving financial assistance from Yale, she had to work as an overnight receptionist to supplement her income. "I worked my whole summer job in a sari because I couldn't afford to buy clothing," she explained to Murray. Since she couldn't afford a business suit, she wore her sari to interviews at prestigious business-consulting firms that employed business-school students. In a Financial Times interview, she recalled that all first-year students at the Graduate School of Management were expected to take — and pass — a course in successful communications, "It was invaluable for someone who came from a society where contact wasn't perhaps the most critical aspect of business at least in my time,".
Indra Nooyi Biography - CAREERHer first work was with Tootal, a British textile firm with significant Indian operations. She eventually went on to serve as a product manager for Johnson & Johnson.
Her work at Johnson & Johnson was demanding because she was in charge of launching Stayfree sanitary napkins in India. Stayfree was struggling to gain a foothold at the time because advertisement for feminine hygiene products was prohibited in the country. Through specifically selling to female students at schools and universities, Nooyi was able to introduce the goods to young people.
Her time at Johnson & Johnson convinced her that she was still unprepared for the business world, so she decided to continue her education. In 1978, she moved to the United States to obtain a master's degree in Public and Private Management at Yale School of Management. She graduated from Yale in 1980 after a fantastic learning experience.
She went on to work for the Boston Consulting Group as a director of international business development initiatives after finishing her degree. She spent the next six years in this role working on several strategic initiatives.
She joined Motorola's automotive division leadership team as a senior executive in 1986. In 1988, she was promoted to vice president and director of corporate strategy and planning after rapidly rising through the ranks.
In 1990, she changed jobs again, this time to Asea Brown Boveri as senior vice president and director of business planning and strategic marketing (ABB). Nooyi had to bring together a group of about 15 disparate companies into a unified operation for this work.
She was a huge success at this job, and by the mid-1990s, she was being courted by corporate headhunters and being given lucrative jobs at some of the world's biggest corporations. Jack Welch, the CEO of GE, and Wayne Calloway, the CEO of PepsiCo, gave her positions in their companies in 1994.
Indra Nooyi Biography - CAREER AT PEPSICO.Indra Nooyi became a senior vice president of business strategy and growth at PepsiCo in 1994. She worked closely with the new CEO, Roger Enrico, for the next couple of years, helping to shape the company's potential expansion and development strategies
KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell were all owned by PepsiCo at the time. In 1997, Nooyi was instrumental in the divestiture of these restaurants. Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc., now known as Yum! Brands, Inc. was formed as a result of divestiture and is now one of the world's largest fast-food restaurant companies.
She believed PepsiCo needed to grow into more healthy snack choices, given evolving customer food tastes. She oversaw PepsiCo's acquisition of Tropicana and merger with Quaker Oats Company, demonstrating her commitment to this belief. Both of these projects turned out to be extremely profitable for the company.
Nooyi was elevated to the chief financial officer in 2000 and president in 2001 to recognise her outstanding contributions to the business. PepsiCo CEO Steve Reinemund retired in 2006, and Nooyi became the company's fifth CEO in its 44-year existence.
Indra Nooyi RECOGNITION AND AWARDS- 'Fortune' magazine named Indra Nooyi No. 1 on its annual ranking of Most Powerful Women in Business for five consecutive years from 2006 to 2010, and she has regularly been listed on Forbes' magazine's list of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women.'
- In 2007, the President of India bestowed Padma Bhushan upon her.
- Global Supply Chain Leaders Group named her CEO of the Year for 2009.
Indra Nooyi's management style mirrors her leadership style: she has always valued her employees and desired to work as a team with them, respecting their views, listening to their suggestions, and appreciating their support.
She's also a visionary who has always worked to create a happy and optimistic working atmosphere at PepsiCo, making improvements to allow employees to feel more at ease and stay for the long haul. She is a true believer in valuing, respecting, and hearing employees for a business to expand and develop.
Final WordsWhen traditional Indian philosophy meets modern American thought when Hinduism meets Christianity, there will be differences first, but they will eventually come together and form a legend.
That individual is Indra Nooyi. She still wears her typical Indian sari to the CEO's office. However, compared to typical Indian women, it is difficult to associate Nooyi with characters such as effeminate and shy. Nooyi has a lot of self-assurance, is a gentler woman with a lot of enthusiasm, and she still talks quickly because she thinks quickly. She resembles the majority of outstanding American leaders.
